Abstract
Elevation and visual data from Chang’E-2, Mars Viking, and MOLA were transformed into 3D models and environments using unity and unreal engine to be implemented in augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications, respectively. The workflows for the two game development engines and the two purposes overlap, but have significant differences stemming from their intended usage: both are used in educational settings, but while the AR app has to run on basic smartphones that students from all socio-economic backgrounds might have, the VR requires high-end PCs and can therefore make use of respective devices’ potential. Hence, the models for the AR app are reduced to the necessary components and sizes of the highest mountains on Luna and Mars, whereas the VR app contains several models of probe landing sites on Mars, a landscape containing the entire planet at multiple levels of detail and a complex environment. Both applications are enhanced for educational use with annotations and interactive elements. This study focuses on the transfer of scientific data into game development engines for the use in educational settings using the example of scales in extra-terrestrial environments.
Highlights
Scientific inquiry as a teaching concept is ideally suited to encourage students to engage with topics from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), as it is both inductive, i.e., the students learn by discovering rules through observation, as well as problem-based, and gives the students a real-world application for their prior knowledge from class and their newly acquired knowledge from the lesson (Constantinou et al 2018)
As the existing models of Earth, Moon, and Mars like Mars Trek were not customizable and not suitable to be used with our teaching material, we developed virtual landscapes as a platform for current and future school applications
Reading and learning about a specific topic is often accompanied by the wish to “go there” and experience it first hand; who did not want to be an astronaut as a child? With virtual reality (VR), students are able to immerse themselves in a subject by “being” there, i.e., visit the International Space Station (ISS) or go on a virtual field trip through the jungle
Summary
Scientific inquiry as a teaching concept is ideally suited to encourage students to engage with topics from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), as it is both inductive, i.e., the students learn by discovering rules through observation, as well as problem-based, and gives the students a real-world application for their prior knowledge from class and their newly acquired knowledge from the lesson (Constantinou et al 2018) This active learning has resulted in increased student performance in STEM fields as shown in the meta-analysis by Freeman et al (2014) and is enhanced by collaborative learning, where students work in small groups in which they are to discuss and help each other out with their tasks (Akçayır and Akçayır 2018).
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